


a nightmare is only but a warning

by ghoulboys



Category: Borderlands (Video Games)
Genre: M/M, Nightmares, Panic Attacks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-28
Updated: 2020-03-28
Packaged: 2021-02-28 20:16:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 393
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23353063
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ghoulboys/pseuds/ghoulboys
Summary: nightmares aren’t uncommon for rhys —he's plagued with the memories of events that have long passed. the effects linger long enough to sink into your system and take a true hold that a person without it could never begin to imagine.timothy holds him through it.
Relationships: Timothy Lawrence/Rhys
Kudos: 24





	a nightmare is only but a warning

**Author's Note:**

> something i wrote in the middle of the night. not proof-read, not written seriously. serious panic attack mentions. mostly written as a vent.

nightmares aren’t uncommon for someone of his kind — one that’s plagued with the memories of events that have long passed. the effects linger long enough to sink into your system and take a true hold that a person without it could never begin to imagine.

a nightmare, to rhys, is a headache. it’s normal, and if he gets too many he may become concerned — when his weeks get bad, they turn into migraines.

the nightmares worsen.

and in the end, all nightmares have the same topic. fears upon fears, stacked and never ending, self discovery every time you turn a corner. just when you believe you’re done, another reveals itself.

he wakes with a low feeling in his gut — not one of the pleasant kinds. it’s uncomfortable and seems to resonate there, yet it locks his entire body. he feels light. he begins to feel numb.

his throat encloses and sometimes he doesn’t speak. timothy kisses him through it and promises nothing but fortune.

trauma is different in every case you come across, as well as the effects.

rhys knows this, yet he cannot seem to disclose the information to himself and rid the thoughts of ‘what if im faking it?’

when he wakes, lurching up in the middle of the night, feeling his wrists being grabbed by someone who’s a distant memory, he screams.

he screams, and it feels like he never stops. he thrashes and swears, he begs and through all of it, he’s screaming.

see, the thing is that rhys never screamed when it had occurred — rhys had done the opposite. he had talked, soft spoken, and didn’t even flinch.

he may have thrashed, he may have grabbed himself to stop, but it was an act of self defense so in his mind, it hadn’t counted.

and he hadn’t screamed, even when pulling himself apart.

yet he screams in the night, he screams against timothy’s chest, and even when his mouth is closed and there’s no sounds except muffled sobs —

it still feels like some part of him is screaming.

timothy rocks him, holds him close and whispers to him.

hes the quiet part of rhys, when rhys himself cannot be quiet.

timothy holds the broken parts of rhys and promises to mend them together.

and through the years that have passed, never once had timothy attempted to quiet him.


End file.
